As a curious 0L, I'd like to get an idea of how many hours you all spend in class/studying. Do the majority of you try to treat it like a run-of-the-mill job (~40 hrs/week), or is it MUCH more than that. Thanks for indulging me; I think this will be interesting.

By the way: this is meant to be your typical/average week in the middle of the semester... NOT finals week or reading period.

bconly wrote:As a curious 0L, I'd like to get an idea of how many hours you all spend in class/studying. Do the majority of you try to treat it like a job (~40 hrs/week), or is it MUCH more than that. Thanks for indulging me; I think this will be interesting.

By the way: this is meant to be your typical/average week in the middle of the semester... NOT finals week or reading period.

You will find that you spend significantly more time studying during the early weeks of your first semester, and less as time goes on. A lot of people average about 4 hours per subject per day, simply because the reading is so dense and you aren't really sure what you're looking for or what many of the terms mean until you've been at it for awhile.

By the end of the first semester, you will probably need only half as long, but by then your legal writing assignments will be monopolizing much more of your time.

Many of my classmates treated law school like a job, and then some of us were super gunners. This is not representative of the bulk of the class, but my study group met every day at 7 AM (before our 9 AM classes...our section had them all week long), we'd have two classes per day, and three on the day we had legal writing. We'd usually be done with classes by 3 PM, with breaks between when we'd try to get ahead on our reading, and I often stayed at the library until 8 or 9 PM...and that was fairly common for 1Ls.

The first semester will be an exercise in time management as you try to keep up with all your reading, outlining, and writing. Lots of students skip classes on the days when big writing assignments are due and then they have to play catch up. The worst thing to do first year is to get too far behind in the reading, because it is very difficult to make it up without sacrificing many nights and weekends.

You will ultimately fall into a routine and the work will come more naturally, but the first month is definitely the worst.

I got to school everyday at 8:00am, and I went to classes and studied and studied until 5:15pm. I made sure that my time at school was efficient. I only socialized while sitting down waiting for classes to start, and I ate my sack lunch in the library while reading my cases for the next class.

At 5:15 my wife picked me up and I ate dinner with her and maybe watched a TV show until 7:00 - 7:30. Then I went down to my office, or drove back to the library, and I studied until 12:00 - 1:00am. I usually took a 15 minute snack break around 10:00pm every evening.

On Saturdays and Sundays I slept in a little and got to the library at 9:00am. I stayed in the library by my self until 6-7pm, and then I usually spent the night with my wife.

My wife helped me out TREMENDOUSLY. She was a blessing during this year by preparing me meals and lunches, doing my laundry, and giving me the support that I needed. That's why I'm spending every moment with her that I can this summer.

So, most weeks I studied/went to class for about 80+ hours, and I sometimes got near 100 hours when LRW got sticky or during reading week before finals.

Anyways, I KNOW that I wouldn't have done as well had I not put in that many hours. Doing well in law school is a combination of intelligence and hard work. If you are only as smart as everyone else, then you need to spend more time studying to get ahead of them.

Locke N. Lawded wrote:You will find that you spend significantly more time studying during the early weeks of your first semester, and less as time goes on. A lot of people average about 4 hours per subject per day, simply because the reading is so dense and you aren't really sure what you're looking for or what many of the terms mean until you've been at it for awhile.

By the end of the first semester, you will probably need only half as long, but by then your legal writing assignments will be monopolizing much more of your time.

Many of my classmates treated law school like a job, and then some of us were super gunners. This is not representative of the bulk of the class, but my study group met every day at 7 AM (before our 9 AM classes...our section had them all week long), we'd have two classes per day, and three on the day we had legal writing. We'd usually be done with classes by 3 PM, with breaks between when we'd try to get ahead on our reading, and I often stayed at the library until 8 or 9 PM...and that was fairly common for 1Ls.

The first semester will be an exercise in time management as you try to keep up with all your reading, outlining, and writing. Lots of students skip classes on the days when big writing assignments are due and then they have to play catch up. The worst thing to do first year is to get too far behind in the reading, because it is very difficult to make it up without sacrificing many nights and weekends.

You will ultimately fall into a routine and the work will come more naturally, but the first month is definitely the worst.

Jesus, no. First month is a breeze because you don't have enough material to start outlining seriously or do practice exams. Hell, my professors all eased us in and started really slowly. The month before finals is where 90% of the work is done.

I spent probably 35-40 hours /week during the majority of the semester. During the final month it was double that.

I'm planning on about 60-70. 5 X 12 hr days with an 8 on Saturday and an off day on Sunday. The Sunday is not a required off day, but rather a day where I will only study if I feel like it. This is pretty close to my current work schedule, so I'm hoping that it won't be a problem.

12+ hours/day. Depending on your goals/passion/willingness to give up everything else in your life, there's a LOT (beyond rather simple 1L survey courses) that goes into constituting an intelligent, literate, informed life in the law.

I plan on studying 6-8 hours a day, with only Saturday off so that I can actually enjoy life on that day (and go out Friday night etc...). I'll probably still go out all the time and enjoy life, but it'll mostly be at night because from 8 Am till 8pm (if not longer), I plan on studying (classes + actual studying). A good beer after that would be fun. I just really want to break into the top 10% of my class. I know its not guaranteed and its difficult, but I'm at least going to put in the hard work so I can say to myself "well, you did all you could". lol.

Edit: I should add, the 6-8 hours is on top of actual class time, so I guess if you take it that way then yes, that would be 12 hours a day, except for Saturday, and probably just 6-8 hours on Sunday.

Locke N. Lawded wrote:A lot of people average about 4 hours per subject per day, simply because the reading is so dense and you aren't really sure what you're looking for or what many of the terms mean until you've been at it for awhile. My study group met every day at 7 AM (before our 9 AM classes...our section had them all week long), we'd have two classes per day, and three on the day we had legal writing. We'd usually be done with classes by 3 PM, with breaks between when we'd try to get ahead on our reading, and I often stayed at the library until 8 or 9 PM...and that was fairly common for 1Ls.

Geez, this sounds like hell. I'm wondering if this is representative? I talked to a couple of 2Ls at Penn (both doing well) and they said they averaged 3-4 hours of studying per day outside of class. If it's 12 hours/day on a daily basis I'll gladly /killself.

TLS could use a great, in-depth article on the day-to-day life of a law student. Anyone interested in writing such an article and submitting it to the TLS Content competition should check out this thread:

I think some of the people that have replied to this are insane. 2 hours per day per class is a very good assessment. Then of course the workload increases with an LRW assignment.

Here's the thing. I took entire days off during the weekend, spent a ton of time with my boyfriend, enjoyed every minute of Mardi Gras and the Superbowl, and I am in the top 15-20%.

If I had spent 8-12 hours per day studying, maybe I would be in the top 3% of my class. That would be nice, but it really isn't the most important thing. In addition to school, I spent 8-12 hours per week volunteering at the public defender's office. When it came time to apply for jobs for the summer, every employer wanted to ask me about my experience there. I am not even working in criminal law this summer, but the fact that I had practical legal experience in any field was a real plus for my employer. I have no doubt that it is the real reason I got the job. I know individuals in the bottom 10% who secured employment for the summer, and I know individuals in the top 10% who did not.

What it all comes down to is experience and networking. Grades are important, and there is a ton of pressure on 1L's to do well, but it's not the most important thing. You want to do things that will make you stand out. Then you want to deliver excellent work product at your summer job, and make the most of every networking experience that it provides you with.

So take a deep breath rising 1L's. Success in law school is about a lot more than just grades, and there is no reason to kill yourself over them.

I typically did 10 hours a day, including class, lunch and gym breaks. Two days a week I was at school total for 14 hours, but that was with a break for the gym...so I probably never did more than 12 hours per day even on my long days. I saved weekends to play with my daughter, but I'd study a couple of hours while she was taking a nap or after she was in bed.

We don't give out anything past top 15%, but guessing based on my GPA I'm in the top 5%. I worked my ass off for it, and maybe to some it was a waste of time, but it was worth it to me. *shrug*

luchy204 wrote:I think some of the people that have replied to this are insane. 2 hours per day per class is a very good assessment. Then of course the workload increases with an LRW assignment.

2 hours per day per class? Say you have 4-5 classes x 2 hours each daily = 12+ hours a day if you include class time.

Maybe I'm missing something but is it safe to assume "2 hrs per day per class" figure includes class time?

I think they meant 2 hours per class per day, only for that day's classes. I've been told a good rule of thumb is for every hour spent in class, you need to spend 2-3 hours working outside of class, unless it's exam time.